For the second time in 10 days international peace workers were attacked and injured by Israeli settlers while accompanying children home from school near the West Bank city of Hebron. The incident occurred October 9th while the group of five international workers and three Palestinians were walking back from school in Tuwani to the nearby village of Tuba. They were approached by a group of eight masked settlers armed with wooden sticks and sling shots. The group of international workers included Christian Peacemaker Teams members Diana Zimmerman a nd Diane Janzen, Amnesty Internationalmembers Donatella Rovera and Maartje Houbrechts, and a member of the Italian Christian organization Operation Dove (Operazione Colomba). Two of the Palestinians are residents of Tuba and the other of Tuwani.
For the second time in 10 days international peace workers were attacked and injured by Israeli settlers while accompanying children home from school near the West Bank city of Hebron.
The incident occurred October 9th while the group of five international workers and three Palestinians were walking back from school in Tuwani to the nearby village of Tuba. They were approached by a group of eight masked settlers armed with wooden sticks and sling shots. The group of international workers included Christian Peacemaker Teams members Diana Zimmerman a nd Diane Janzen, Amnesty Internationalmembers Donatella Rovera and Maartje Houbrechts, and a member of the Italian Christian organization Operation Dove (Operazione Colomba). Two of the Palestinians are residents of Tuba and the other of Tuwani.
The international workers had been accompanying the children to and from school at the request of the villagers because of the violence they face from the settlers along a path that skirts the Ma’on settlement and the Ma’on ranch. When the team saw the masked settlers approaching them they immediately called the police and attempted to walk away. Three of the masked assailants ran after the Palestinians, hurling stones at them with their sling shots. The others attacked the fi ve members of the accompaniment team. The Operation Dovemember suffered a broken arm and kidney damage and had his video camera stolen. Rovera and Janzen were struck with wooden sticks. The settlers finally ran away when one of the women from Amnesty Internationalyelled in Hebrew, “The police are coming; you are not going to get away with this.”
The Operation Dovemember, who could not move his arm, collapsed as he was helped to an ambulance. He was treated for his injuries at Soroka hospital in Beer’Sheva and released the next day.
The Israel Defence Force declared the path a closed military zone following the incident, the second in the same area in 10 days. Previously, Christian Peacemaker Teams members Chris Brown and Kim Lamberty, both of the United States, were attacked and beaten by five masked settlers wielding chains. Lamberty suffered a broken arm and Brown a punctured lung. The EAPPI is doing similar work accompanying children to and from school in Hebron.
